It is well known that mandolin slicers are generally used to slice food items like potatoes and cucumbers etc. A chef may require variable slicing patterns when preparing food slices. For this purpose, mandolin slicers available in the prior art usually comprises different types of slicing plates for realizing different slicing patterns. However, the slicing plates may hurt the hands of the user as he has to directly contact with the slicing plates to achieve the interchange of the slicing plates.
For example, U.S. application No. US2007/0089577 discloses a mandolin slicer for slicing food items in variable thicknesses, which comprises a frame structure with two opposite side rails, a cutting blade mounted on a lower glide portion of the frame structure, and a slicing plate removably mounted on an upper glide portion of the frame structure between the two side rails. The removable slicing plate has a male portion to engage with a female portion such as an open hole arranged in a non-removable portion mounted on the frame structure, allowing for the interchange of the slicing plate with other types of removable slicing plates. But when it is needed to effect the interchange to provide different slicing patterns, the slicing plates may hurt the hands of the user because the user has to directly hold the slicing plates for interchange.
To avoid the direct contact with the slicing plates, U.S. application No. US2009/0255391 proposes a mandolin slicer comprising a frame structure with two opposite side rails, a cutting blade mounted on a lower glide portion of the frame structure, a slicing plate mounted on an upper glide portion of the frame structure between the two opposite side rails, and two arrays of slicing blades mounted on a selector slide which is movably mounted on the frame structure and below the slicing plate. The slicing plate has two sets of offset slots which are arranged in a front portion of the slicing plate. The user can manually adjust the selector slide to selectively pivot up the two arrays of slicing blades to protrude through the two sets of offset slots and above the surface of the slicing plate, so as to provide different patterns of arrangement of the slicing blades on the slicing plate. This thus enables different slicing patterns for food items, without the need to directly contact with the slicing blades so as to avoid the slicing blades to hurt the hands of the user. However, this mandolin slicer cannot provide variable slicing patterns for food items, due to the limitation of the arrangement of the only two arrays of slicing blades. Moreover, the structure of this mandolin slicer is very complicated and difficult to manufacture.
Thus, there is a need for a mandolin slicer kit assembly allowing for interchange of variable types of slicing plates without the need of direct contact between the hands of the user and the slicing plates.